The Hanging Tree

Publisher's Summary

What if you couldn't remember the worst night of your life? What if you couldn't forget it?

May 13, 1994.

On her 13th birthday, newly orphaned Evie witnesses a brutal attack at the hanging tree. She wakes the next morning on a bus to Los Angeles, dazed, bruised, and desperate to remember. Her best friend died that night - she's sure of it. But there's no body, no crime scene, and no witnesses. Twenty-three years later, the whole night is still a blur. The murderer, a faceless, nameless man.

Fresh out of a stint in juvie, Butch kills a girl, strangles her. Twenty-three years later, he walks out of prison a free man. But a haunted one, the ghost of his past at his heels.

When another body turns up at the hanging tree - a girl, strangled - Evie is certain her lost memory holds the key. Can Butch help her find the faceless man? Or is he hiding the darkest secret of all?

©2018 Ellery Kane (P)2019 Ellery Kane

Excellent

i really enjoyed this dark gritty thriller
I like how the story unfolds through flashbacks and the POV of butch and evie
The characters and setting are great and the multiple narrators was a nice touch
Looking forward to reading more by this author highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great story line but...

Kristin James should have narrated the entire book. Her female parts were perfection and her narration of Butch made you believe that this guy was really good deep down despite his past. Brad Oxnamm’s portrayal of Butch made me not like the character at all. It felt like he was a geek who shouted the whole dialogue. The story was compelling though.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

couldn't stop listening

a great book and a great listen you couldn't stop listening to this book even if you wanted to it's not a short one and you can't stop yourself from finishing the book it was very interesting and horrible and all in the same time and you can stop yourself the narrator was a great part of that fact it was a wonderful listen to have
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

I disliked every character. Every. One.

Spending 12 hours with a book should be a more enjoyable experience, even for a murder mystery. This listen was not. I hated everyone. Even the main character said and did the dumbest things.

This book is dark and at times confusing. All of the characters (All. Of. Them.) were lacking. The story was intriguing and I definitely wanted to stay with it to find out what happens. That ending made me scream out loud.

Loved the narration though!

Gripping with rather unlikable characters

This is a stand-alone novel having no characters in common with the previous book in this series. None of the characters in this somewhat confusing thriller are particularly likable, nor are they fully developed. Some of their actions and behaviors seem too contrived and unrealistic. Still, the story is gripping, although the last chapter is rather strange -- unsettling even.

Kristin James, Eric Stuart, and Brad Oxnam all gave acceptable performances. I especially liked Kristin's voicing of the teenage girls.

NOTE: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Interesting thriller with a few flaws.

First of all, let's get the legal stuff out of the way: "This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

The Hanging Tree is a pretty good book. There are a few things that keep it from being great.

First of all, the good stuff. The characters are quite compelling. Every single one of them has a secret or two, and the author does a good job of keeping you interested in the secrets and compels you to keep going in order to find them out. The suspense level is good, and the twists keep coming right to the end.

The audiobook narration is well done, with a few minor annoyances, such as rushing through obvious pauses (a couple of times the introduction to a new section sounded like it was the tail end of the last sentence in the previous section) and some mild mispronunciations (I thought it was going to be much worse when I heard "indentions" instead of "indentations" in the first 2 minutes, but the errors were fewer and further apart after that).

Now for the gripes, and be aware, there are some spoilers here. The two main complaints I had with this book were the overall length (about 15 to 20 percent shorter would have been perfect in my opinion) and several blatant implausibilities that really bugged me. Let me elaborate. The main character is haunted by an event that took place 26 years previously, and is convinced that her best friend at the time was murdered. She says that she has searched continuously over the years for this girl, yet failed to find any trace of her, despite the fact that this girl is actually alive, and living in the same neighborhood where the protagonist both lives and works. A little far-fetched. My other complaint is similar. Everything related to the traumatic experiences of the earlier life of the protagonist seems to be unrealistically "frozen" in time. The villain of the story still lives in the same trashy trailer, operates out of the same seedy motel, runs the same pimp operation, and even drives the same car that he did 26 years ago. The "hanging tree" is exactly the same as it was 26 years ago, which seems quite unlikely in an urban area of a city like Oakland. Almost as unbelievable as the unchanging nature of all these things is the notion that in spite of the fact that these things are all exactly as they were 26 years before, no connections have been made during the intervening years, the protagonist has never had any contact or information about the other important characters, and all of the drama just comes out of nowhere in the present day.

Notwithstanding these issues, The Hanging Tree is worth checking out.

Engrossing storyline

The storyline for this book kept my interest all the way to the end. Even though it is a long book, I didn't get bored and it didn't feel drawn out. I enjoyed the way it was played out with the story going back in forth from current time to the past to slowly reveal the events. Although I was anxious to find out what happened, my interest just became more intense as the story unraveled. I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

Loved it

Fantastic book. I really enjoyed the thrill ride that the author presented here. And the ending caught me off guard in a good way. The characters were well done and made you care for them. The narrator did a great job of bringing everything to life and making it easy to stay engaged with the story. I was given a free copy of this audio in return for an unbiased review.

Phenomenal story and phenomenal performances!

This is my first book from this author and I am glad to say that I am a fan. This story is fast paced with an intricate mystery that keeps you guessing. There are no drawn out back stories or explanations yet the story is full, well rounded, and gets you hooked in chapter one. Excellent suspense psych thriller with an ending that's not expected. Cudos to the writer and cudos to the two voice actors.


I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Very Different

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was an interesting listen. It was nice have the 2 main characters read by different people. Made it easier to hear the different parts.

It has a different ending to what you expect, which made it a nice difference.